All for Immortality, HARDCORE MODE! (Inactive)

Game Master Matthais777

Alright guys, time for HARDCORE MODE.

May the gods have mercy on your character sheets. *Salutes*

Some basic info to get started-

Name:
Character Name:
Pathfinder #:
Level,Class,Race:
Initiative:
Perception/Senses:
Dayjob/Downtime Use:
Marching Order Position:
Things I as GM should know about your character beforehand (Blindsense, Telepathy, trapsense, bonus under a full moon, ect like abilities):

Primary Tactics: This is more for your guys benefit than mine. How does your character work? How do you contribute to the team? You guys are going to HAVE to work together or your gonna get STOMPED, so use this discussion space to figure out what things you have that synergize well together, how you'll use them in battle, ect.

Please note: This is HARDCORE Mode. I WILL be going for the throat. I will not cheat of course, and rolls as always will be public, but I'm not going to make this easy for you... Bad guys may take out downed characters, bodies may get destroyed, ect. My own character died in this campaign and had his body annihilated, and I thought it would be a cakewalk, so BE READY FOR THAT POSSIBLITY! Same character made it through Krune and Bonekeep on hardmode, so he wasn't a push over.

Name: zer0darkfire
Character Name: Yajima Katsuki
Pathfinder #: 193338-14
Level,Class,Race: UnMonk 4/Paladin 2/Champion of Irori 6
Initiative: +3
Perception/Senses: +22 Normal Lame Human Vision
Dayjob/Downtime Use:

Marching Order Position: As close to the front as possible
Things I as GM should know about your character beforehand (Blindsense, Telepathy, trapsense, bonus under a full moon, ect like abilities): Yajima has deflect arrows. In addition, he has skill mastery with acrobatics, swim, climb, and perception, so he will almost always take 10 on these skills. Yajima has a special ability called "Second Chance" that is basically contingency Lay on Hands (self). His trigger will be "when I would become unconscious from hit point damage". Yajima has 10 resistance to negative energy and evasion.

Primary Tactics: Yajima has two types of positioning that work well. One is going solo into a group of enemies thanks to his Valiant Stand Ability: At 4th level, a champion of Irori gains a sacred bonus on attack rolls and to AC equal to 1/2 his class level when adjacent to more than one opponent. He does not gain this bonus if he is also adjacent to an ally.

The other type is having as many allies as possible adjacent to Yajima because of his Shield the Weak ability: At 5th level, as an immediate action once per round, a champion of Irori can shield a number of adjacent allies equal to his Wisdom modifier from a burst, cone, line, or spread effect that allows a Reflex saving throw and which he and his allies are all affected by. The champion of Irori must forgo his own saving throw, but adjacent allies gain improved cover against the effect, providing a +4 bonus on Reflex saves and improved evasion against the effect.

But the second is more for the parties benefit than for my own.

@GM: The threads haven't been connected into a campaign yet, so dotting Gameplay won't follow the threads.

Name: Scott
Character Name: Huritt Two-hoof
Pathfinder #: 143586-3
Level,Class,Race: Human sorcerer 13
Initiative: +0
Perception/Senses: +0 (+2 w/ Riddywipple at hand)
Dayjob/Downtime Use: Profession (horse trader): 1d20 + 6 ⇒ (15) + 6 = 21
Marching Order Position: Ideally, 35 ft. from the first marcher, but not last either.
Notes: Huritt has several items that can take effect out of turn: aegis of recovery, bracelet of second chances (7), gloves of arrow snaring. He will have a lot of spells active once we go adventuring, but won't know exactly which ones until the characters learn a little about the mission, location, etc.

Primary Tactics: Huritt's preference is always deception. Illusions in combat, bluffs the rest of the time. His banner moment was turning the tide of battle in a 10-11 combat with a 1st-level spell. He surrounded an invisible, flying enemy with the silent image of a pinata--blinding the bad guy, making it visible to the good guys, and turning a life or death situation into a silly game.

When faced with true seeing or something else that brings reality knocking, Huritt switches to transmutation effects like baleful polymorph, mass reduce person, and slow.

If matters turn catastrophic, then he might break out things like a persistent phantasmal killer--but both Huritt and I dislike such un-fun tactics.

Level,Class,Race: faerie dragon familiar 17 (robe of arcane heritage)
Initiative: +3
Perception/Senses: +8, darkvision 60 ft., low-light vision
Dayjob/Downtime Use: candy extortion
Marching Order Position: On Huritt's shoulder if I don't say otherwise, though I often do.
Notes (GM): telepathy

Primary Tactics: He can auto-activate 5th-level scrolls, and has a 95% chance of succeeding with 6th-level ones. I'm happy to share scrolls up to 3rd-level that I bought with Prestige, but he is most helpful to characters who have their own scrolls of heal, breath of life, break enchantment, death ward, etc.
Notes (Players): Riddywipple has a dragon's pride and a fey's capriciousness. He will only help PC's that treat him the way he thinks he deserves, but he has saved somebody's life almost a dozen times now--so it's probably worth kissing up to the annoying little megalomaniac.

.

Name: Tealk!
Character Name: Ras'al Til
Pathfinder #: 159547-4
Level,Class,Race: 13 Exploiter Wizard, Elf
Initiative: +16
Perception/Senses: +24
Dayjob/Downtime Use: Take 10 for max of 150gp.
Marching Order Position: Anywhere you wanna put him.

We really do have a full line up of spell casters, don't we? This is going to be very interesting.
Stuff:
Ras'al is you very typical conjuration specialist wizard, but better. He uses primarily his conjuration spells, with a variety to target will, reflex and fort saves - depending on the circumstance. Since we have good damage from our team, i will stick to controll spells - although they sometimes end the fight right away. Out of his arsenal, he can automaticlly get any spell cast offensively, which he might - and very often depending on how serious the spell is, will counterspell the effect. He likes to start big fights with a telekinetic charge to get the martial into the front lines, which he hopes to make full advantage of. He is an arcanist, so can swap out any spell for something different as a full round action with his quick study ability.

...He also has a very high diplomacy. And is happy to hand out long heroisms to anyone who wants them.

I welcome the challenge. We played through Thonkeep with three poeple and no pregen on this character. He has also played through Krune. He has also played in the high tiers for all other 12-15 scenarios on Hardmode. I look forward to you trying to defeat us!

Feh, was kinda hoping this would fizzle and die, and I wouldn't have to do it =)

Name: Aaron
Character Name: Teriq Ashfall
Pathfinder #: 84637-2
Faction: Scarab Sages
Level,Class,Race: Elf Flame Oracle 14
Initiative: +9 (+12 when in elemental form)
Perception/Senses: +18, low-light vision, gaze of flame
Dayjob/Downtime Use: (might forgo this for a faction thing)
Marching Order Position: Not in the front!

Things to know:
Teriq, though an oracle, was built for archery. He's not a ranged death machine, like other classes on that path though. He also has the ability to see through mist, smoke, and fire ... and has an obscuring mist, wall of fire, a smoke stick, and an eversmoking bottle if needed to help him stay safe while firing (he is somewhat squishy).

He can, and usually does, maintain the form of a fire elemental (that looks just like him, just on fire) when adventuring (up to 14 hours a day), including a polymorphic pouch to keep his weapons and such from getting absorbed when he changes. When in said form, he gains a few elemental traits that are helpful, darkvision, some DR, AC, plus more dex.

He can ignore 25' of difficult terrain when moving, can fly in a pinch, but otherwise, is mostly there for support... as most of his spells have too low a DC to be helpful on offense.

Last played in 2015 with the death of Krune (the last two levels came from campaign mode credits on an adventure path)

edit: hmm.. turns out I have 104k gold to spend too. Hmm

Name: neodam
Character Name: Dorje Wangchuk
Pathfinder #: 137484-2
Level,Class,Race: 13 / Unchained monk / Dwarf
Initiative: +5
Perception/Senses: +20
Dayjob/Downtime Use: no day job
Marching Order Position second

He does not speak but can understand and speak with any living creature. :)

Purity of body - immunity to all diseases including supernatural and magical diseases

Improved Evasion - half damage on failed saves

Pummeling Style - add all damage and then apply DR

He also has the ability to see through mist, smoke, and fire

I once had a table of players pick a fight with Uori (waves oracle) in #5-08: The Confirmation. He filled the whole room with obscuring mist and then picked them apart with his bow. It took forever, but the only things they could do were die or run.

Name: Mark M
Character Name: Lavode de'Morcaine
Pathfinder #: 30504-1
Level,Class,Race: 12 sorcerer half-elf
Initiative: +1
Perception/Senses: +18 Low Light Vision
Dayjob/Downtime Use: none
Marching Order Position: Toward the back
A] I can (but almost never have) just plain positively flood the combat field with summoned creatures. I have only done that twice when the whole party asked me to and the GM said he was ok with it. I am not trying to steal the show.
B] With my languages and wand of speak with animals, I can communicate with anything I can summon to have them do other things than just fight.
C] The celestial bloodline gives me wings to fly, but that isn't all that unusual at this level.
D] I have the elven arcane training for bard, so I can use bard spell completion magic items. Though I have used up all my bard scrolls that I had, I may purchase a few more after the briefing.
E] Nearly always have Ant Haul and Mage Armor active.

Primary Tactics:
1) When I summon creatures, I usually prefer to summon celestial beings (since I have the celestial bloodline it seemed thematic). Though if the task is obviously suicidal, I summon a fiend to punish it. I have also often found summoned elementals useful in many out of combat situations. A hasted cloud of air elementals can quickly scout a really huge area.
2) Though often I never actually get around to summoning anything in a fight. By the time I let loose a couple of buffs or control spells, things are often far enough along that summoned creatures won't help much.
3) If things even seem like they might be getting dangerous, I have a tendency to use a Vanish. (Lavode is quite squishy.)
4) Of course the best option is to summon something decent, then include it in the group buffs prior to the fight actually starting.
5) When I use an offensive attack spell, it is usually with the persistent meta-magic feat to make it tough to resist.

Telepathy (Su) The creature can mentally communicate with any other creature within a certain range (specified in the creature's entry, usually 100 feet) that has a language. It is possible to address multiple creatures at once telepathically, although maintaining a telepathic conversation with more than one creature at a time is just as difficult as simultaneously speaking and listening to multiple people at the same time.

I would interpret that as a two-way conversation.

As the GM, I tend to rule it the same way. Beings with telepathy can talk and listen to someone who doesn't, basically by the person without telepathy firmly "Thinking" what they want to say. It's not detect thoughts or mind reading after all. Also, the person who's the "Hub" for the telepathy has to relay everything spokes in a wheel style, it's not a conference call... which means it's pretty difficult to use in combat or in stressful situations.

Huritt already has a pair of magical gloves. Anybody know whether dragons have a hands slot? Faerie dragons weren't listed on the table for animal companion and familiar magic item slots.

Edit: Found it. They use the biped (hands) slot and do not need to take the Extra Item Slot feat--so, Riddywipple can use the first aid gloves.

re: first aid gloves

Teriq has nothing occupying his hand slot (magic-item wise)

But he can already cast all the spells the gloves give.
So probably best to have them elsewhere.

here
According to this post, familiars in PFS don't get any slots automatically. That table means you could take the extra item slot feat to activate those slots.

Correct, only armor and neck are freebies, everything else requires a feat to unlock

Is one of you a better diplomat than me?
If not, I might purchase a few scrolls or couple of wands to help me do that better. Then I will be ready to go.

Armor and neck are only freebies for animal companions.

Familiars don't even get that.

As for diplomacy, Teriq only has a +8. So not nearly enough for some of the high DC's you see at this level =)

Is that a Society rule? From the info I looked up, it said that Improved Familiars get their slots without having to take the feat. But that may have been general, and not for PFS.

So should I buy gloves or not?

Huritt, follow the link to the blog Lavode posted, it spells it all out.

But for familiars, the very first line: By default, familiars do not have any magic item slots, but they can unlock magic item slots associated with their respective body shape.

By comparison, the first line for animal companions is: An animal companion has access to the armor and neck magic item slots automatically, as long as its body shape is eligible for these slots.

There was also an option to train out one of your familiars feats for extra item slot for free... but not sure if the free part still applies.

Note, this blog overwrote some prior commentary on the subject, which might be part of the confusion.

@Dorje: You might be better off buying a scroll of heal and/or scroll of breath of life. That's cheaper, and more of us can use it.

A lot of us think it was a stupid PFS ruling, but it is there. I guess there were some people really min-maxing some wierd shennanigans on their animal companions and familiars to completely dominate the tables. {shrug}

I do have a scroll of Breath of Life in my spring loaded wrist sheath. It's not on my spell list, but I have successfully activated with UMD twice. I also failed once.

I'm spending 6 prestige to buy 3 wands
Aspect of the Nightingale
Adoration
Heightened Awareness

And another 2 prestige on a scroll with 5 copies of Raiment of Command

With a few rounds of prep, I can jack my diplomacy up to 23 if necessary.

I also bought a few more alchemical power components

Does having activated a wand previously carry over between PFS scenarios? It seems like it wouldn't, but either way it feels weird.

Just found out about a spell that is perfect for this character, so adding it to my purchases before we start:

scroll of heal: 1,650 gp
scroll of raise animal companion: 2,125gp
Total: 3,775 gp

Will this be a 1 post per weekday/weekend pace, or are we going slower?

My hope is to go at the 1 post per weekday/weekend pace, but I plan on being fairly patient if things get complicated. Please at least check in that often and if something is to complicated to do a "quick" post, at least let the team know your working on it here.

Like this massive opening post I'm working on... >.>

I love the custom introduction to our PCs, great job! I wish Yajima had more to say or do in heavy roleplay games like this, but he is pretty straight forward and would rather just get right to the mission.

Thanks! Did a liiiiitle bit of stalking those of you have previous campaigns on PBP and your background info, but I feel it's important to the feel of the mission. This is a grand endcap after all.

My last game as also my only PbP game with Yajima, he is otherwise a GM Emerald Spire character, so that probably made that a little more difficult for you, but at least that last encounter was pretty epic in the siege of diamond city.

This is the first time I've played Teriq in pbp. So nothing for you to mine there. =)

Granted, but some of your characters lend themselves to cool nicknaming and whispers amongs the people. I mean, "Turns into elemental and is named Ashfall" sounds like something that the bards would sing about. ;)

Would any of you, your familiars, or animal companions benefit from a 12 hour mage armor or ant haul?
It is extremely rare anymore for me to make much of a dent in my first level spell slots.

Lavode will carefully study this room and at least one alternate location of the Emir's choosing for return teleports.

Planning wise:
Immediately upon hearing of an alert, Lavode will begin casting spells to try to get them up prior to teleport. (I am aware I may not be able to get them all up in time before the teleport is necessary.) In this order:
1) Magic Circle Against Evil - dur 120 min
2) If the info includes something like massive energy attacks, I will include Communal Protection From Energy (type) - dur 120 min split amongst group
3) Bless - dur 12 min
4) Summon Monster VI - dur 12 rnds (choice will depend upon what is known)
5) Haste - dur 12 rnds
6) Mirror Image on self - dur 12 min
7) Heightened Awareness on self - dur 10 min
8) Shield on self - dur 1 min
9) Vanish on self - dur 5 rnds (possibly Improved Invisibility)

If you want include on the group buffs, stay close enough to me to be effected.

With this many casters in the group, if any of you are planning on these buffs being in your list, please let me know so I can drop them out of my list. Not doubling up on our efforts will greatly speed the prep time.

Once the briefing is finished, I will cast the following:

Dorje wants the Stoneskin.

Okay, so if I could ask you guys a favor cause I will be handling a LOT of moving pieces when we start. If you have a rounds per level spell, or a spell that only lasts a minute, please list that spell and how many rounds left of it are in your posts, like this:

Vanish(3)
Summon Monster (5)
Haste (5)

Please also count casting time of your other prep spells in these numbers. So Lavode's end result would look like this.

Summon Monster VI 7
Haste 8
Shield 9
Vanish 5

If you affected by someone else's spell (For example, Haste) please include it's name and time remaining on yours.

This one is VERY complicated, and I'd like to avoid a lot of "Wait, I had vanish active, he couldn't see me!" type of back and forths or "Wait, I totally had shield another still active, let me count how many turns I've had since I started it."

Thanks in advance guys... I'm gonna be asking a bit more than usual of you guys, but it's all in the name of making this a smoother, more fun, experience.

I always have tried to keep my active buffs in an ooc][ section at the beginning of each post. So no problem there.

...

@Lavode: Riddywipple and I could both benefit from mage armor.
...

Will cast it on both of you right after the briefing finishes.

Riddywipple will carry Huritt's wand of shield, and tap himself with it as soon as we get the call to arms.

----------

@Lavode: Thank you!

Yajima does not have any buffs to apply and he would like as little magic as possible cast upon him. He is ready to go once everyone else is.

Ras will give out extended heroism’s to the martials and himself, and self buff with 10 min per level spells. I will post those tonight.

@Ras'al: Would you like to extend the heroisms on Dorje and Yajima? I can spare a couple of rod charges.

Yajima will decline a Heroism spell. He isn't a fan of magic in general, but magic that alters the mind is especially unpleasant to him. He is only accepting of the teleporation magic because there is not much of an alternative option.

just as a side query, in case I missed it.

The various elixirs (real and imagined) have alreayd started out, correct?
If so, what is their expected travel time.

Casting buffs shorter than an hour/level now, might be quite a crap shoot, as it might take all day for something to happen.

My mount is fast enough to get there without the dimension door, but still need more info about which prep spells went off and the battlefield layout before I can act.

@Yajima: How are you with healing and condition removal spells?

@GM: The map is set to view only. And how many rounds of prep did we get in before teleporting?

Re: Prep rounds -- It looks like Ras'al and Teriq only have 2 rounds of prep, and 1 for Dorje. I can get 4/5 actions done in 2 rounds. After that, I'm not sure it's worth the delay.

Voting for 2 rounds of prep, if it's a choice.

Healing: I can heal myself all day long. I've got 11 6d6 Lay on Hands a day, plus I can spend 1 ki point from my pool of 21 (+2 in a ring) to get an additional use.

Condition Removal: None unless having lay on hands scaling with your level also gives you mercy, but I'm pretty sure it does not. I think condition removal for me is just condition prevention from relying on my saving throws.

Fixed the editing.

Per the statement put forward, Lavode De'Morcaine uses 12 rounds to prep all his spellwork unless someone else objects. Faarheena won't teleport you until you are all ready to go, so how much "Prep" you take is up to you.

This is time sensitive, so we should only use no more than 2 rounds, that is just my opinion...

Ok, if just 2 rounds then I will summon and haste.
I will cast vanish while she is doing the teleport.

@Yajima: I meant how are you with us casting on you, for things like remove paralysis ?